June 2
1800s *1891 - Charles Radbourn of the Cincinnati Reds won his career 300th game beating the Boston Beaneaters at South End Grounds, 10–8. Radbourn, who will finish 484 of the 497 games he start, will end his 11-year career this season with 309 victories. *1894 - Ed Stein pitched a seven-inning no-hitter, as the Brooklyn Grooms beat the Chicago Colts, 1–0. The previous day Brooklyn held Chicago to one hit in a 5–0 shutout. 1900s *1902 - The New York Giants fired manager Horace Fogel and replaced him with second baseman Heinie Smith. Six weeks later, John McGraw will become the team manager and Smith return to being a full-time player. *1905 - The New York Giants scored five runs in the 13th inning to beat the host Boston Braves, 8–3, and give pitcher Red Ames his ninth win since the start of the season. 1910s *1915 - At the Polo Grounds, Babe Ruth and the well-traveled Boston Red Sox beat the New York Yankees, 7–1. It was the last stop on a 29-day road trip for the Red Sox. Ruth allowed five hits and hit his second major league career home run, a three-run shot off Jack Warhop in the second inning. After his homer, Ruth received two intentional walks. He ended up kicking the bench and breaking his toe, sidelining him for two weeks. 1920s *1925 - 21-year-old Lou Gehrig started a game for the New York Yankees when regular first baseman Wally Pipp was hit in the head during batting practice and complained of a headache. Gehrig collected three hits in five at-bats, helping the Yankees to an 8–5 victory over the Washington Senators. Gehrig will go on to play in a major league record 2,130 consecutive games. *1928: **St. Mary's College football star Larry Bettencourt started at third base for the St. Louis Browns. A future member of the College Football Hall of Fame, Bettencourt was an All-American center who will later play for the Green Bay Packers. The $6,000 bonus he received was a record for a major league rookie just out of school. **Les Bell of the Boston Braves collected 15 total bases with three home runs and a triple, but Boston lose to the Cincinnati Reds, 20–12. 1930s *1932 - In Triple-A action, Buzz Arlett hit four consecutive home runs, leading the Baltimore Orioles to a 14–13 victory over the Reading Keystones, 14-13. *1935: **Babe Ruth of the Boston Braves announced his retirement from baseball. Struggling with a .181 batting average at the time, he retired with 714 home runs, by far the most in major league history. Ruth will gain election to the Hall of Fame the following year. **George Pipgras was released by the Boston Red Sox. He will later become an American League umpire. *1937 - National League President Ford Frick suspended Dizzy Dean for refusing to retract statements made after a balk call in the May 19th game, which led to an on-field brawl. Dean forced a meeting with the press at which he denied the statements, and his suspension was lifted a few days later. 1940s *1941 - Lou Gehrig died of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis at the age of 37 in New York. From that time on, the illness was known primarily as Lou Gehrig's Disease. Gehrig had seen his major league record of 2,130 consecutive games end because of the disease. It was on this day exactly 16 years ago he broke into the Yankees starting line-up. *1942 - Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox enlisted as a Naval Aviator. Williams will finish the season with his team as will many other players who enlisted or await draft, which moved slowly despite the early discouragements of the war. Other American League regulars of 1941 enlisted in the military service included Johnny Berardino, Sam Chapman, Bob Feller, Joe Grace, Buddy Lewis, Pat Mullin, Johnny Rigney, Johnny Sturm and Cecil Travis. *1943 - The Boston Red Sox and the St. Louis Browns played four consecutive extra-inning games, working 45 innings in games between May 31 and June 2. Both leagues will set season records for extra-inning activity, 91 in the American League, 80 in the National League. *1949 - At Shibe Park, the Philadelphia Phillies hit five home runs during the same inning (the eighth) in a 12–3 victory over Cincinnati, tying the major league mark set by the 1939 New York Giants. Andy Seminick hit two home runs in the inning, while Del Ennis, Willie Jones and Schoolboy Rowe had one each. Jones added a triple as Granny Hamner's double jumped the extra bases total to 18, still a record. Seminick collected three home runs overall. 1950s *1950: **George Kell of the Detroit Tigers hit for the cycle in the 16–5 second-game sweep of a Detroit doubleheader with the Philadelphia Athletics. The Tigers won the opener, 8–2, behind the pitching of Ted Gray and home runs of Vic Wertz and Hoot Evers. Wertz had five runs batted in in the opener, and two more in Game Two. **The St. Louis Browns won both games against the Washington Senators, 10–5 and 9–3. Hank Arft hit 5-for-5 in the opener, while Harry Dorish was the winning pitcher in the second game. Dorish also stole home plate on the front end of a double steal with Ray Coleman, to became the last American League pitcher in the 20th century to steal home. *1957 - Chicago Cubs pitcher Moe Drabowsky tied a National League record by hitting with pitches four Cincinnati Reds batters in the 6–4 loss to the Reds. *1958: **Whitey Ford of the New York Yankees stroke out six in a row to tie an American League record as he shut out the Chicago White Sox, 3–0. White Sox pitcher Jim Wilson allowed just six hits, but three of them were home runs by Hank Bauer (two) and Mickey Mantle (one). On a botched hit-and-run attempt, Luis Aparicio was thrown out at second base, ending his streak of 26 consecutive stolen bases. **Brooks Robinson of the Baltimore Orioles hit into a triple play against the Washington Senators. Robinson will hit into three more triple plays during his career, establishing a new major league record. *1959 - A swarm of gnats delayed the game between the Baltimore Orioles and Chicago White Sox at Comiskey Park. After a half-hour interruption, the Chicago grounds crew disposed of the gnats by using a smoke bomb attached to a postgame fireworks display. The Orioles eventually defeated the White Sox, 3–2. 1960s 1970s 1980s *1986 - Rod Carew announced his retirement from baseball at the age of 40. Carew left the game with a .328 batting average mark, compiled over 19 major league seasons. A former Minnesota Twins and California Angels infielder, Carew will gain election to the Hall of Fame in 1991. 1990s *1990 - Randy Johnson pitched the first no hitter in the Seattle Mariners history, a 2–0 win over the Detroit Tigers at the Kingdome. Johnson stroke out eight and walked six. *1995: **The Boston Red Sox defeated the Seattle Mariners, 6–5, as John Valentin had one of the best hitting days ever by a shortstop. Valentin went 5-for-5, including three home runs and four runs scored. In doing so, he became the first SS ever to have 15 total bases in a single game. **Japanese rookie pitcher Hideo Nomo recorded his first major league win with the Dodgers, limiting the Mets to one run on two hits in 8+ innings of work. *1996 - Houston Astros pitcher Darryl Kile tied a major league record by hitting four St. Louis Cardinals. Kyle also became the first National League pitcher to do it since Moe Drabowsky accomplished the feat pitching for the Cubs in exactly 39 years ago. *1999 - In the first-year player's draft, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays selected North Carolina State University prep star Josh Hamilton as their top pick. It was the first time since 1993, when Alex Rodríguez was selected, that a high school player has been chosen first. 2000s *2000: **With the Detroit Tigers visiting Wrigley Field for the first time since the 1945 World Series, Chicago Cubs reliever Rick Aguilera pitched a perfect ninth inning for his 300th career save in the 2-0 Chicago victory. **Fred McGriff of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays became the 31st major league player to reach 400 career home runs, when he hit a two-run blast off Glendon Rusch, in the 5–3 loss to the New York Mets at Shea Stadium. **The Montreal Expos announced they will wear Maurice Richard's uniform number nine on their jerseys for the rest of the season to honor the Montreal Canadiens great who died last week. It is believed to be the first time a major league team has honored an athlete from another sport in this way. *2001 - At Miller Park, the red-hot Chicago Cubs extended their winning streak to 12 games, beating the Milwaukee Brewers, 10–4. Matt Stairs hit a three-run home run, while Sammy Sosa and Rondell White added two-run homers, all off Paul Rigdon. Kevin Tapani was the winning pitcher. It is the longest winning streak for the Cubs since they won 15 games in 1936. The streak will finish tomorrow. *2005 - The New York Yankees were swept by the team with the worst record in the majors (16-37), falling 5–2 to the Kansas City Royals for their first five-game losing streak in more than two years. Kansas City pitchers allowed just six runs in the series. It was the third time in their storied history the Yankees had been swept in three games by the team with the worst record in major league. The other times were in 2000, by the Detroit Tigers, and 1937 by the Philadelphia Athletics. The Royals had gone 78 series without sweeping anyone, the longest drought in the majors since the Phillies went 79 series without a sweep from 1996-97. *2006 - Jamie Moyer of the Seattle Mariners pitched a two-hit, 4–0 shutout over the Kansas City Royals. At age 43, Moyer became the oldest pitcher to throw a complete game shutout since Charlie Hough in 1994. *2008 - David Ortiz of the Boston Red Sox is placed on the 15-Day DL with a torn tendon sheath in his left wrist. Births *1869 - Jack O'Connor, catcher (d. 1937) *1899 - Sloppy Thurston, pitcher (d. 1973) *1931 - Larry Jackson, All-Star pitcher (d. 1990) *1933 - Jerry Lumpe, All-Star infielder *1938 - Gene Michael, player and manager *1940 - Horace Clarke, infielder *1940 - Jim Maloney, All-Star pitcher *1962 - Darnell Coles, utility *1963 - Bryan Harvey, All-Star pitcher *1967 - Mike Stanton, All-Star pitcher *1972 - Raúl Ibáñez, outfielder *1973 - Neifi Pérez, infielder *1981 - Chin-hui Tsao, pitcher *1982 - Tim Stauffer, pitcher Deaths *1915 - Dave Orr, infielder (b. 1859) *1941 - Lou Gehrig, Hall of Fame infielder (b. 1903) *1993 - Johnny Mize, Hall of Fame infielder (b. 1913) *2001 - Gene Woodling, All-Star outfielder (b. 1922)